Mapping the Places

This report sets out in visual form, and compares, currently existing ways in which England is divided up into smaller areas, for both analytical and administrative purposes. It is a counterpart to the House of Commons Library’s 2019 briefing paper Where do you draw the line?.

Several of the maps in this document provided a detailed visualisation of administrative boundaries in selected local areas in England. Large all-England versions of these maps, which can be expanded to view local areas, can also be accessed below. You can zoom in on these PDF maps to see more detail.

• Local authority and Travel To Work Area boundary comparison (30MB PDF)
• Local authority and Broad Rental Market Area boundary comparison (30MB PDF)
• Broad Rental Market Area and Travel to Work Area boundary comparison (30MB PDF)
• NHS CCG and Travel To Work Area boundary comparison (30MB PDF)

The maps highlight many of the similarities and differences between local administrative boundaries in England. The briefing paper also uses a method to produce figures for how coterminous two sets of administrative boundaries are – that is, the percentage of two sets of boundaries that are identical to one another. It presents a selection of administrative boundary maps, and compares a number of uses of administrative boundaries with functional areas. It also notes alternative methods that can be used to analyse administrative boundaries.